What My Child is Reading - January 30, 2010

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we've buried ourselves in Loreen Leedy books this week. But, we didn't get to read as many of them as I would have liked. We've had some really good snowball snow this week, so we've spent a lot of time outside, away from our books.


We did manage to read a few though, adding some to our list of favorites, and tossing others into our return-to-the-library pile.


Missing Math, is a story about what happens to a town when the numbers go missing. It has a fun rhyming format good for younger children (my three year old really liked this one), but older children might enjoy the concept of how numbers impact daily life, as well.








Look At My Book, How Kids Can Write & Illustrate Terrific Books, takes children through the entire process of creating their own books, from brainstorming ideas, to picking a genre, building characters and settings, researching, planning, editing, illustrating, and much more. Leedy packs in a lot of facts, and details, making it a good reference book for slightly older children (I'd say ages 8-12).






Blast Off To Earth, A Look At Geography, was our favorite pick of the week. It's an introduction to world geography, as seen from an alien prospective. I thought maybe the younger children would be put off by the dialogue bubble format of the narrative, but the combination of alien robots, and enjoyably illustrated animals, from around the world, kept them engaged. And, there were plenty of fun facts, and trivia for the older children. It's one of those books, that warms a homeschool mother's heart.





Postcards From Pluto, A Tour of the Solar System, the story of a field trip into outer space, told in a series of dialogue bubbles, and postcards home, was not quite as big a hit with the younger children, ages three and five. They missed the robot dog, and the animals, from the geography book, and the postcards were a little wordy for them. This was still a favorite for my seven year old son, who has an interest in outer space, and it's a nice introduction to the solar system. (For you Magic School Bus fans - it does include a few facts that Miss Frizzle's tour of the solar system doesn't cover, and would be a nice companion to that book in the series.)


Measuring Penny, was our only Leedy flop for the the week. It was way too wordy for the younger children, and too simple a topic, covering an introduction to measurement, for the older children. The younger children did enjoy the variety of dogs illustrated throughout the book, but that proved to be more of a distraction to the story, than an aid in keeping them interested. This one goes back to the library.





For more reviews, and recommendations of children's books, check out this weeks What My Child is Reading, link up at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.


It's great to be a homeschooler.